WARRINGTON Wolves have snapped up promising winger Tom Lineham and will keep hold of skipper Joel Monaghan.

The club paid Hull FC £140,000 for 22-year-old Lineham, who has signed a four-year deal and will arrive at The Halliwell Jones Stadium in pre-season for the 2016 campaign.

Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith says Lineham is an “exciting addition” and rubbished rumours Monaghan, 33, will depart.

“Joel’s a big part of our future and plans for next year,” said Smith.

“Tom’s got speed and strength and he’s having another great season. He’s a try scorer, young and British – that’s important to us.

“He’s an elite player, I’ve no doubt in my mind he’ll go on to representative honours and we’re looking forward to helping him develop as a player.”

Lineham will not be classed as Wolves’ marquee signing and the club may therefore be in the market to strengthen further for next year.

“He will hopefully one day be in that category and we see him as a fantastic signing, but he hasn’t filled that marquee spot at this stage,” explained Smith.

“So we’re always on the lookout for that type of player. But we’re focused on doing the best we can with what we’ve got at the moment.

“It’s about enjoying and getting as much out of every season as we can.

“But I look forward to working with Tom when the time comes; it’s a real positive for the club’s future.”

Wolves’ first-team coach Richard Agar recruited Lineham when in charge at Hull FC, having been tipped off about the teenager by York City Knights owner John Guildford.

“I used to coach York and John very kindly tipped us off they had this young, raw winger when Tom was in his first season there,” said Agar.

“He had played a little bit of rugby union, a bit of student rugby, and in his first year at York John kindly sent me some DVDs.

“We went to watch him a bit more and recruited him for Hull, but at the time he was still studying so while I was there he was part time.

“We had made him up to full time the following year, but I left to coach Wakefield and never got to work with him at full-time level.”

Agar is impressed with Lineham’s development and praised owner Simon Moran for snapping him up.

“Back then we saw a lot of size and a lot of natural speed,” he added. “At that point he had got to develop his game but I think he’s done that.

“He’s turned himself into a tremendous finisher, very potent from all sorts of tries, a great ball carrier and he’s a big strong boy.

“There are elements to his game that will improve with experience but at 22 he’s certainly got his best years in front of him.

“Again our club has shown we’ve got an owner who’s prepared to back us and gone out and got someone with very rich potential.”